Border Patrol bust in Southern New Mexico yields 6 tons in drugs

U.S. Border Patrol agents made one of the region's largest drug busts when the agents seized more than 6 tons of marijuana after intercepting a vehicle convoy on a remote road in Southern New Mexico.

"In the last five years, we had not had a seizure of this amount," said Fernando Escabi, an acting supervisory Border Patrol agent and spokesman for the agency in El Paso. The case was announced Friday.

Border Patrol officials said the bust took place Monday night after agents saw five vehicles traveling together on NM County Road 1 in Hidalgo County, in the New Mexico Bootheel.

Escabi said agents were able to stop four of the vehicles after smugglers tried to escape by driving through the desert.

The stopped vehicles were filled to the roof with large bundles of marijuana weighing a total of 13,700 pounds. The Border Patrol estimated that the marijuana has a street value of more than $10.9 million.

During the bust, Border Patrol agents were helped by Hidalgo County sheriff's deputies and by aircraft from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Office of Air and Marine.

"We are extremely proud of this seizure," Escabi said. "This is the result of inter-agency cooperation."

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It is unknown where the marijuana was being taken.

Officials said that Border Patrol agents from the Lordsburg station regularly stop marijuana-smuggling attempts in the southwestern corner of New Mexico but that the size of Monday's bust was unusual.

Lordsburg is part of the agency's El Paso sector, which covers all of New Mexico and the westernmost part of Texas.

In recent years, law-enforcement officers have said that narco-smugglers in the El Paso region had moved away from large-scale drug loads and switched to transporting smaller amounts, which lessened the risk of being discovered.

Escabi said that smugglers continually change their tactics to try to elude authorities.

"There are always trends, and trends change," he said.

Monday's marijuana seizure was bigger than some of the biggest pot busts in El Paso in recent years, which were of 9,000 pounds of marijuana found in a tractor-trailer in 2009 at the Zaragoza Bridge and 12,620 pounds of marijuana in a trailer at the Bridge of the Americas in 2003.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102. Follow him on Twitter @BorundaDaniel.